Machine and method for joining plain and ribbed fabrics



4 3 8 4 2 m u um Ruww JW H F T. A. OLIVE MACHINE AND METHOD PLAIN AND RIBBED Filed Dec. 20,

April 10, 1951 Patented Apr. 10, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT o-Fncs MACHINEVAND METHOD FOR. JOINING PLAIN AND RIBBED FABRICS Thomas A. Oliver, Jr., Philadelphia, Pa.

Application December 20, 1948, Serial No. 66,239

My invention relates to looping machines and relates particularly to an. improved looper machine for assembling knitted hose.

Heretofore hose have been made on both flat and circular bed knitting machines. In the manufacture of ornate base such as Argyles, it has been found to be more convenient to make the leg portion of the hose upon a circular Jacquard machine and to make the foot portion of the hose upon a second machine which may be flat or circular and then to sew the leg and the foot together, using a looper machine.

In order to sew the foot and leg portions together, it is necessary to sew to ether the loops in each wale of the respective portions, otherwise, any unsecured loop will become unknit, and produce a run in the stocking.

In sewing. the leg and foot portions together, the operator takes a foot portion and places it upon the impaling pins or points of the looper in such manner that all of the successive loops in a single horizontal course of the fabric are impaled. upon the successive pins of the looper. The operator then places the leg portion of the stocking upon these same looper pins, and the looper bed revolves toward the sewing mechanism. The sewing needles then operate to unite the loops which have been placed upon the same impaling pin with the loops upon the adjacent pins, forming a continuous junction on seam between the leg and foot fabrics. The overlapping edges "of the fabrics are then cut away and the lint brushed out to finish the seams.

In order to have the Jacquard fabric and the foot fabric of the same weight there are usually twice as many wales in the Jacquard fabric as in the foot fabric per inch of width.

In the case of a ribbed leg fabric being joined to a plain foot fabric wherein the front of' the ribbed fabric and the plain fabric have the same number of wales per inch, it may be seen that if the adjacent foot fabric loops are placed upon successive points, then the loops of the back of the rib fabric will have to be doubled upon some of the impaling pins or points in order to accommodate both the front and back of the rib loops.

In order to place adjacent front and rear rib loops upon the same points, the operator new places the front loop upon one point, and then shifts the entire fabric slightly back to engage the rear rib loop upon the same point, this latter operation being done mostly by feel since the rear loop is not readily seen by the operator.

While it is possible to achieve some dexterity in this operation, it-is nevertheless obvious that 2 Claims. (01. {112-27) this.,method. of assembling the work upon the machine is time consuming and prone to error, especially until the operator has acquired some skill.

It, therefore, is a n objector my invention to provide a hosiery looper which will accommodate bothplain and ribbed fabrics in the same manner, thereby simplifying the operators task of manually assembling the work upon the pins.

Another object of my invention is to provide means whereby conventional loopers ofpresent and past manufacture ma be easily modified to operate in the manner of my invention.

Another object of my invention is to provide a method for assembling both plain and ribbed fabrics.

Other objects of my invention are to provide an improved device of the character described, that is easily and economically produced, which is sturdy in construction, and whichis highly efficient in operation. I

With the above and related; objects in view,

from the interior of the looper bed, showing a ribbed fabric pins.

being assembled upon the impaling Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view as seen by the looper machine operator, showing in the rear a ribbed fabric already assembled upon the pins, and showing to the left front, a plain fabric placed upon the pins.

Fig.3 is a fragmentary front view showing the appearance of a ribbed fabric joined to a plain fabric by a machine embodying my invention.

Fig. 4 is a top view of a portion of the impaling pins of a horizontal looper machine embodying my invention.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of a vertical looper machine embodying my invention.

Briefly, my invention consists of the use of alternately long and short impaling pins in the bed of the looper machine. In placing a ribbed fabric upon a bed of alternately long and short pins, the operator merely places each successive front loop upon a successive long pin.

The rear rib loops, which are located intermediately of the front loops, are automatically registered with the intermediate short pins of the looper, and when the fabric is ushed further onto the pins, the rear rib loops are simultaneously impaled upon their respective short pins. The operator then places the plain foot fabric upon the looper machine by locating the successive loops upon the successive long pins only, and the machine then operates to sew the two fabrics together in the manner of Fig. 3. It can be seen that the adjacent front and rear rib loops of therib, fabric are placed upon adjacent lon and short pins, rather than being doubled upon the same pin, and that the operator is not required to manually shift the rib fabric as she has been required to do in the past. This change in the operation of the machine produces a seam which differs from the prior art, but which is smooth, inconspicuous, and entirely satisfactory.

Referring now to the drawing, wherein similar reference characters designate similar parts, I show a portion, generally designated as A, of the bed frame of a horizontal looping machine. A plurality of impaling pins, which are alternately long and short in length, extend radially from the bed frame A. The long pins are designated as l and the short pins are designated as I2. The upper surface of these pin are grooved, in order to permit the looper sewing needle to cooperate therewith in the conventional manner.

The fabric which is first placed upon the impaling pins is the rib knit fabric, designated generally as B, and illustrated in Fig. l. The loops 14 which are visible to the operator from the front and are therefore termed front loops are placed upon the long pins whereupon the rearloops {6 become aligned with the short pin l2. Consequently, when the fabric is pushed further into the needles, the rear loops I-B become impaled upon the short pins [2, as shown in Fig. 2. In placing the plain foot fabric, generally designated as C upon the looper, the operator places the successive loops [8 upon the successive long pins Ill. When this fabric is pushed in further upon the looper bed, the short pins merely pass between the adjacent loops of the plain fabric C.

The fabrics having been both assembled upon I2 the sewing stitch is formed only upon the single rear loop I6 of the rib fabric, however this loop is secured into the chain of the sewing stitch, and hence cannot become unknit.

Although I have shown and described my invention as applied to a horizontal bed looper machine, it is obvious that the invention may also be applied to a vertical machine, as shown in Fig. 5 wherein the long needles 24 and short needles 26 extend from the bed D. This operates in the same manner as that which has already I, been described.

the invention may be variously embodied, and

the scope of the invention is to be determined as claimed;

I claim as my invention:

1. In a looping machine for joining together knit fabrics having a plurality of Wales and courses, a bed, a plurality of impaling pins or points extending from said bed and the alternate impaling pins being longer than their adjacent shorter impaling pins, whereby a rib knit fabric may have the rear loops impaled upon said short pins while the front loops are being impaled only upon said longer pins.

2. A method for joining the foot and leg portions of hose together, comprising knitting on a circular rib machine the leg portion of the hose, separately knitting the foot portion of the hose on another knitting machine, impaling the front rib loops of the leg portion on a looper machine only on the longer impalin pins of the looper and impaling the rear rib loops automatically upon the short impaling pins which has alternate long and short impaling pins, and impaling the end loops of the foot portion upon said longer needles of the looper, and sewing together the impaled loops of both the leg portion and the paling pin, in a continuous conventional chain stitch 20. The front of this sewing stitch 20 is shown in Fig. 3. In the case of the short needles foot portion.

THOMAS A. OLIVER, JR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,963,836 De Spain June 19, 1934 

